Chocolate Monsters at Diagon Alley
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: After their second Hogwarts year, Harry and Hermione decide to run away from their families and spend their holidays at Diagon Alley until they need help. COMPLETELY AU, Snape OOC, fluff, mentioning of abuse!Harry/Hermione, sick!Harry


**Chocolate Monsters at Diagon Alley**

**by Healer Pomfrey**

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story._

_I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes._

-----

**For Milliefluff – Happy Birthday!**

* * *

Harry observed Hermione in concern. During the entire train travel, she had not said a word. She had neither admonished Ron or him if they made a chocolate frog eating contest, which Ron had won by eating a dozen chocolate frogs in a row, nor had she begun to admonish them about their summer assignments yet. '_Maybe she is still suffering from the after effects of being petrified_.' He turned to the girl. "Hermione, are you feeling all right?"

Hermione let out a long sigh. "I'm fine, Harry; it's just that I don't want to go home."

Harry and Ron, the only other occupants of their compartment, exchanged a confused look. Hermione cast a silencing spell at the door and slowly began to speak. "I only knew after Madam Pomfrey healed me, but my mother died several months ago, while I was petrified. I have to return to my father, but he hates me because of being a witch. Ever since he became aware of that, he despised me. It was only because of my mother that he didn't beat me, because she always jumped between us. I'm scared."

"Hermione, I'm so sorry," Ron said quickly. "Do you want to come with me?"

Hermione shook her head. "Thank you, Ron, but no. They'd only take me back to my father."

"Mione, I don't want to go home either. Let's just run away and spend the two months somewhere," Harry said slowly.

The children spent the remaining time of their train travel planning their holidays. Ron promised to keep their secret and instructed them to send Hedwig if they had any problems. When they finally reached King's Cross, they innocently greeted the Weasleys, who were waiting on platform nine and three quarters.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Weasley, could you perhaps cast a self enlarging shrinking charm on my trunk? It's so heavy," Hermione asked softly, causing Ron's mother to smile and cast the requested charm on both her and Harry's luggage.

Placing their trunks in their pockets, Hermione and Harry excused themselves stating that they had to use the toilets, where they quickly pulled Harry's invisibility cloak over their heads, before they headed out into the Muggle part of the station, observing from the corner of their eyes how Molly Weasley greeted Mr. Granger and the Dursleys.

"I hope the Weasleys will go home, before your relatives and my father realise that we're not going to come," Hermione whispered to Harry, when they left the station and headed towards Diagon Alley.

The two friends had decided to take a room at the Leaky Cauldron and buy the Daily Prophet, hoping to find any advertisements for rental rooms, since they both wanted to remain in the magical world if possible. Before they entered the Leaky Cauldron, Harry once more hid under his invisibility cloak and quietly followed Hermione.

"I need a room with two beds for my brother and me. He's going to arrive later on," Hermione told Tom, the owner of the pub, who looked at her suspiciously.

"Do your parents know that you're here, and do you have money at all?" he queried in a stern voice.

"Yes, they're Muggles and they're on a business trip for a few weeks. I need to go to Gringotts and get money," Hermione explained firmly.

Tom led her upstairs and showed her to a room, while Harry remained in the pub in order not to alert Tom of his presence by making sounds when stepping on the old wooden steps. Only when Tom returned downstairs, Harry carefully climbed the stairs, glad that Hermione was waiting for him in the corridor.

"We should go to Gringotts right away," Hermione suggested, "before anyone might be looking for you."

"The Dursleys will be over the moon with joy that I didn't show up. They won't tell anyone," Harry replied but agreed, and the two friends made their way to Gringotts, where Harry pocketed enough Galleons for the two of them to get through the summer.

"I'm sorry that I don't have any money," Hermione apologized for the umpteenth time, when they returned to the Leaky Cauldron.

"Mione, I already told you that it's all right. As you saw, I have more than enough gold in my vault," Harry said soothingly, giving half of the gold that he had retrieved to Hermione.

During the following days, Harry and Hermione mostly remained in their room at the Leaky Cauldron. Only once a day, Hermione headed to Diagon Alley to buy the Daily Prophet, and once they went out into Muggle London together in order to eat something and buy some food and water for their next meals. From time to time, they hid under the invisibility cloak together and went for a window shopping walk through Diagon Alley. At the end of the first week, they finished their summer assignments, and Hermione suggested going to the bookshop to get their third year books.

"We don't even have our book lists yet," Harry replied in surprise.

Hermione sighed. "Of course not, but you can be sure that Flourish and Blotts already know the titles that are going to be on the Hogwarts book lists. Let's go."

"All right. Mione, would you mind going alone today?" Harry asked hesitantly, causing the girl to throw him a sharp look.

"Of course not, but why?" she asked, knowing that Harry loved walking through Diagon Alley as much as herself, even if he had to stay under his invisibility cloak. "Are you feeling all right?" she added in concern, noticing that beads of sweat were building on Harry's forehead, although he seemed to be slightly shivering.

"My head and my eyes hurt a bit," Harry admitted in a quiet voice, "but it's all right." He slightly flinched back when Hermione extended a cool hand to his forehead.

"You feel a bit warm," Hermione said thoughtfully. "Why don't you lie down and rest for a while then, while I go to Flourish and Blotts?"

To her concern, Harry readily agreed. '_Oh no; we can't have Harry get sick now_,' Hermione mused as she stepped out into the alley. However, when she returned with two piles of books shrunk in her robe pockets, Harry didn't feel any better. He told her that his throat felt like sandpaper. "It's just a little cold though. I've had worse, so don't worry," he said, before he turned around to get some more sleep.

Now feeling very worried, Hermione quietly left the room and spoke with Tom. "My brother seems to be sick. Do you have a thermometer so I can check his temperature?"

Tom nodded and fetched something from a drawer. He cast a cleaning spell on the old looking device and handed it to Hermione. "I need it back right away though, because it's our only one. We can give you a headache potion and a Pepperup potion if needed. However, if it's worse than just a cold, we have to call our Healer. She works at St. Mungo's but comes here to check on our guests if they're ill."

Hermione thanked Tom and returned to their room. "Harry," she gently addressed the boy, causing him to blink. "I just want to check if you have a fever," she said softly, coaxing the glassy device into his mouth.

"Ik gok..." Harry began to mumble uncomfortably around the cold stick.

"Wait a moment, Harry. I need to find out if you only have a cold or if it's worse. If so, I have to take you to a Muggle doctor, since we can't take the risk of someone from St. Mungo's coming to examine you," Hermione said softly, while she carefully bathed his forehead with a wet towel.

After a few minutes, the tip of the thermometer flared yellow. Hermione plucked it from Harry's lips and checked the result. "38.1," she said, frowning. "That's a slight fever. I'll go and take the thermometer back to Tom."

When she borrowed the thermometer again in the morning, Harry's temperature was only slightly lower, but the two friends decided not to bother Tom anymore, afraid that he might call someone from the hospital to check on him, since the Pepperup potion, which he had given them the previous evening, had obviously not worked. However, Hermione watched Harry like a hawk, noticing that he seemed to neither feel better nor worse during the following week.

One day, Hermione saw an advertisement in the Daily Prophet. "Harry, look, they have an apartment to rent that is just around the corner. It's fairly cheap too. Shall we go and have a look?"

Harry immediately agreed, knowing that it was too dangerous for them to stay in the Leaky Cauldron much longer, because the more time of the holidays passed, the more students and teachers would go in and out of the pub. The apartment was on the second floor of an old building that was situated just opposite of Flourish and Blotts. It consisted of a small kitchen, a bathroom and a large room that was a combination of living room and bedroom, equipped with two small beds. The surprisingly large window in the room looked out into Diagon Alley.

"Hermione, let's go to a super market in the Muggle world and buy some food. I'd prefer to cook instead of having to go out to eat every day," Harry suggested, and from that time onwards, Hermione once a day went shopping in the Muggle world, before Harry cooked dinner for her every evening.

"Harry, your cooking is absolutely delicious," Hermione said in amazement. "You should be excellent in Potions, if you could just overcome your difficulties with Professor Snape."

"That's impossible, because he hates me with a passion," Harry replied, noticing that it hurt to speak. He tried to hide from Hermione that he felt worse by the day; however, the girl was closely observing him, and his discomfort didn't go unnoticed.

It was at the end of their fourth week in Diagon Alley that Hermione noticed that Harry was only playing with the delicious food that he had cooked earlier and that he hardly showed any reaction when she told him what she had just read in the Daily Prophet about the first person who had managed to escape from Azkaban. She cast him a piercing look, realising in concern that eyes were glazed over and his cheeks had taken on an unnaturally red colour. She gently laid her hand on his, not surprised that his skin felt very hot to the touch. "Harry, you're really sick, aren't you?"

Harry gave her a miserable look from half-open, glassy eyes. "I don't feel so well tonight. I'll just clean up here and go to bed."

"No Harry, I'm going to clean up. Just go to bed. If you don't feel better in the morning, we'll go and see a Muggle doctor."

Feeling too bad to protest, Harry agreed, causing Hermione's concern to increase tenfold. However, in the morning, Harry was not only very feverish, but his whole body hurt and when he took a shower, he noticed that his arms were covered by small green pustules.

"Oh no, Harry," Hermione said, terrified, when Harry showed her his arms. "That's a magical illness. I can't take you to a Muggle doctor with that. I'll go to the apothecary and ask for a fever reducer and something to help with these pustules."

"Thank you," Harry mumbled wearily and closed his eyes, nestling deep under the covers.

'_That's just what we needed now. Everything was so great during the last four weeks. So far, these were the best holidays I ever had_,' Hermione mused as she hurried to the apothecary that fortunately was not far away. When she entered the shop, she noticed in shock that no one else but Professor Snape was standing at one side of the room, busily examining one of the ingredients shelves. '_Oh no. I hope he won't see me. Thank Merlin I didn't drag Harry here_,' she thought, looking up when the apothecary suddenly stood in front of her.

"Good morning, Miss. How can I help you?" he asked in a friendly but stern voice.

Hermione glanced at the Potions Master, who was standing not far away. However, the apothecary looked at her questioningly, and his expression even if friendly told her that he didn't have the whole day.

"I need a fever reducer," she said in the lowest voice she could muster. From the corner of her eyes, she saw that Professor Snape had turned around and was now shooting a deadly look at her.

"Which degree of fever reducer do you need?" the apothecary queried, giving her a sharp look. "Is it for yourself?"

"No sir. I don't know. My friend is burning up," Hermione replied, feeling herself blush as she felt very stupid and was aware that Professor Snape was observing her with interest and disdain.

"Well then I suggest that you take his temperature and then come back to get the appropriate fever reducer. If I give you a wrong one, it won't help as much," the apothecary said gently.

Hermione blushed. "Excuse me, sir, but we don't have a thermometer. Do you sell these as well?"

The apothecary placed a thermometer in front of her. It looked like an old Muggle device, but the package said, '_Display of result and advice in colour and tone_.'

"Thank you sir," Hermione replied, paid for the thermometer and left the apothecary, feeling very relieved that Professor Snape had left her in peace. She hurried back to their room, where Harry was fast asleep. She carefully shook his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Harry, but I need you to wake up for a moment, so that I can check your temperature," she said softly.

"Mione," Harry mumbled, "there was a chocolate monster, over there at the door, but it only had hot chocolate and no chocolate ice cream. It's already so hot here."

'_He is delirious_,' Hermione thought in concern and carefully stuck the thermometer under Harry's tongue, causing the boy to shiver violently at the cold touch. Fortunately, it took only a few seconds, before pink letters emerged from the tip of the device displaying, '_40.8'_. At the same time, a voice that sounded strangely like Madam Pomfrey's said, "You have a dangerously high fever. Seek medical attention immediately."

"Harry, try to sleep some more. I'll go back to the apothecary and get something for your fever and for the green pustules," Hermione said softly. '_I just hope Professor Snape will be gone by now_,' she thought as she quickly crossed the busy shopping street, sighing in relief when she entered the apothecary without meeting any of the teachers – until she saw that the Potions professor was still meticulously examining one of the ingredients shelves.

"Welcome back," the apothecary greeted her. "How high was your friend's fever?"

"40.8," Hermione said in a low voice. "And do you have anything against small green pustules on arms?"

"Green pustules?" the apothecary asked, giving her a suspicious look. "Did your friend have a Potions accident?"

Without looking sideward, Hermione felt the professor come nearer. "No sir. He has been feeling under the weather ever since we returned from Hogwarts. He has been running a temperature the whole time, but only this morning, the green pustules appeared on his arms and his fever spiked so much."

"Green pustules? That sounds like some dangerous magical disease. He needs to be taken to St. Mungo's," the apothecary said, his expression becoming dark. "Severus, do your students know nothing about how dangerous magical illnesses can be?"

The Potions Master suddenly stood behind her, and she could feel his warm breath in her neck. "I assume that your friend must be Mr. Potter. What are you doing here at all? You're both supposed to let yourself be pampered by your families during the holidays."

Hermione swallowed but decided not to reply. "Very well then, lead me to Mr. Potter," Snape demanded and turned to the apothecary. "Rogers, I'll take care of the matter. I'll be back later or maybe in the morning, if this takes time."

Hermione anxiously led the teacher to their apartment. "Professor," she said quietly as she stopped a few steps before reaching the entrance. "Please don't send us back home; my father hates me, and Harry's relatives starve and abuse him. That's why we came here. We've been living here peacefully for a month. Harry has been cooking for us, and we both have finished our summer assignments and have already read all our third year books..."

"Ms. Granger," Snape interrupted her impatiently. "If I understood your conversation with Mr. Rogers correctly, Mr. Potter is very ill and in dire need of medical attention. I am not a Healer, but I have at least some Healing experience and might be able to help him. If not I will call Madam Pomfrey. About everything else we're going to speak afterwards. Now lead me to Mr. Potter."

Hermione hesitantly led the professor upstairs, where Harry was still asleep. He flinched back badly, mumbling something about chocolate monsters that were attacking him with ice, when Professor Snape carefully touched his shoulder to wake him up.

"It's all right, Mr. Potter. I won't do anything to you. I merely came to help you," he said in a surprisingly gentle voice. Ignoring Harry's anxious look as well as Hermione's encouraging nod, he once again took the boy's temperature and closely examined his arms, throat, ears and eyes. "I am not one hundred percent sure, but your symptoms are that of the grindylow flu. It is very slow developing in contrast to all other kinds of the flu and it goes along with a throat infection, green pustules and a high fever," he finally said thoughtfully. "Unfortunately, I am not capable of any diagnostic spells; therefore, we have two possibilities. I can either call Madam Pomfrey here or take the two of you to Hogwarts with me."

"Not Hogwarts," Harry croaked. "The Headmaster will only send us back to our Muggle guardians, who hate us because of being magical."

The Potions Master nodded in understanding, remembering only too well how Petunia had behaved when he told Lily that she was a witch at the age of six. "Very well then, I'll call Madam Pomfrey and your Head of House." He waved his wand in a complicated wand movement and sent a Patronus to his colleagues. Seeing that Harry was already drifting back to sleep, he motioned Hermione to follow him out into the kitchen and instructed her to tell him everything about their home lives.

During the twenty minutes until the two witches from Hogwarts arrived, Hermione told the Slytherin Head everything she knew about Harry's stay with the Dursleys as well as about her father, and Snape nodded in understanding. "Did you speak with your Head of House about the matter?" he queried, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Hermione replied, hesitating.

"And why is that?" the professor enquired.

"Harry told me that he asked Professor Dumbledore this year and last year if he could stay at Hogwarts over the summer, but Professor Dumbledore said that he had to return to the Dursleys. So why should I speak to Professor McGonagall or him if it doesn't help anyway?"

"Mr. Potter is a different matter. However, we'll discuss both of your cases with your Head of House and with the Headmaster," the Potions professor said and sighed. "I know only too well what it means to be sent back to an abusive home," he added in a very low voice, more to himself than to Hermione.

お誕生日おめでとう

Snape quietly followed the Mediwitch into the bedroom, while Hermione explained to her shocked Head of House what they had been doing at Diagon Alley during the last four weeks.

"Mr. Potter has the grindylow flu," Madam Pomfrey informed her colleagues a few minutes later. "However, he has neglected it for so long that it has progressed and has become very bad. We must take him to Hogwarts, so that I can properly look after him to prevent his organs from becoming affected, which would be disastrous."

"No, not Hogwarts," Harry croaked, throwing the Mediwitch a terrified look. "Here, the chocolate monster is trying to make hot chocolate from me, but at Hogwarts, the Headmaster will send me to Hell once again."

McGonagall sat on the edge of Harry's bed, carefully taking his hot hand into her own cool hand. "Harry, as long as you're so ill, Professor Dumbledore won't send you anywhere. And after your recovery, Madam Pomfrey, Professor Snape and I will try to convince him to consider assigning you a new guardian."

"Mr. Potter, you're so ill that you can deem yourself lucky if you're completely recovered by the beginning of the school year," Madam Pomfrey said sternly. "Severus, if you take Ms. Granger with you, I'll take Mr. Potter."

The three adults activated their emergency Portkeys, which led them to the hospital wing at Hogwarts. While Harry had to stay in Madam Pomfrey's clutches, Professors McGonagall and Snape spoke with the Headmaster, the Dursleys and Mr. Granger. When Harry was released from the hospital wing after a week, even if he was not completely healed and still needed to take potions and had to come back for checkups twice a day, Hermione told him excitedly that Professor McGonagall was now her guardian, while on the Headmaster's instruction Professor Snape had become Harry's.

"Harry, isn't that great? From now on we'll always be able to remain at Hogwarts during the holidays. Do you want me to show you our new rooms?"

"All right," Harry laughed, feeling very relieved. "It's great that we can stay here at Hogwarts. Wait... Did you say Professor Snape? My guardian?" His expression turned into disbelief, causing Hermione to chuckle.

She led the boy to a door across the hall from the hospital wing. "Home," she told the portrait of a young woman with red hair and wonderful green eyes.

"Welcome to your new home," the witch said gently.

"Mum?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"Yes sweetie. My you've become a wonderful young man, haven't you? Severus was so kind as to rescue my portrait from our old home, and your friend here has told me everything about you. I'm very proud of you, son." With that she opened the door that led into a small living room.

The living room was equipped with two desks and a small table with four comfortable looking chairs around it. To each side of the room was a door; the wall, where the entrance door was, was nearly completely covered by a huge bookshelf, while the opposite side held a large window that was charmed to show the view onto the lake. "The left door leads to your bedroom and bathroom and the right one to mine. Your bedroom is connected to Professor Snape's living room and mine to Professor McGonagall's," Hermione explained and opened the door to Harry's room.

Harry looked around in amazement. The room only held a four poster bed and a comfortable looking arm chair, but everything was kept in different shades of blue, and the ceiling was charmed like that in the Great Hall. "Wow, this is gorgeous," he blurted out, just when one of the other doors opened and Professor Snape strode in.

"I'm glad you like it, Mr. Potter," he commented, smirking, before he motioned for him to follow him into his quarters. "I'm sure Ms. Granger will be able to get along without you for a few hours, since I believe that we have to speak about several matters."

Harry wearily followed the Potions Master. Too apprehensive to even glance around, he only noticed that the room was very bright and was surrounded by tall bookshelves in turn with magical windows. During the next two hours, the professor explained in detail why he had acted towards Harry the way he did, that he despised child abuse greatly and had already reported the Dursleys to the Ministry of Magic, that his mother had been his best friend during their childhood and about the rules, which he expected Harry to follow, while he was in his care.

Feeling extremely relieved to have a guardian, who turned out to be very considerate and understanding, Harry readily agreed to each of the professor's rules and thanked his new guardian profusely. "Thank you so much, Professor, for becoming my guardian. I appreciate it very much."

"You're welcome, Harry," Snape replied in a soft voice. "I promised your mother to keep you safe, and I'm going to keep my promise, especially as she can help me now by guarding your entrance door. If you keep to my rules, I'm sure that we'll manage to get along well. Are you still feeling all right, or do you need to go back to the hospital wing?"

"I'm fine, sir," Harry replied softly.

"Very well, in that case I suggest that you go and search Ms. Granger, before she worries if I have killed you."

'_Hogwarts has been my home since I first set my foot on these grounds, but it's great that it's official now_,' Harry thought, feeling happier than he could remember having felt ever before.

When the professor led him back into his own room, Harry stopped dead in his tracks, noticing that the room was completely dark. '_Is it already so late? And why aren't there any stars in the sky?_' he wondered, when all of a sudden the room turned back to light and multiple voices began to shout, "Happy Birthday!"

**The End**


End file.
